Dr. Monahan grinned at Ford who was busy brushing his wife’s hair away from her sweaty face and brushing kisses everywhere he could reach. “Looks like you got yourself a little girl this time.”
Callie used her waning strength to lean up from the bed. She was grinning and crying at the same time, but that’s what she’d done for several days after both of their little boys had been born, so Ford wasn’t too worried about it this time.
“When you told me it was going to be a girl, I didn’t believe you,” she informed the doctor. Thrill and shock lit her exhausted tone. Ford accepted the tiny pink bundle wrapped in blankets like it was the most precious thing in his world. Other than his wife and his sons, she was.
“I’m not sure I know what to do with a little girl,” he admitted in a choke. Overwhelming emotion and protectiveness gripped his vocal cords.
Callie grinned. “You always know exactly what to do with me,” she reminded him.
He brushed a tender kiss on his little girl’s forehead and then another one on her mama’s. “I already bought you a pony,” he informed their daughter. “And I’ll teach you to ride, just like I taught Mommy.”
Everyone in the delivery room chuckled at him. He didn’t care.
Apio snapped another picture of the three of them as Ford laid the baby on Callie’s chest. Callie had wanted this birth photographed in all of its gory but beautiful detail. Apio had flown in from Johannesburg to do the honors. Connecting women to their beauty indeed. She’d agreed to fill in at Callie’s studio on the square in Holder County while Callie took a few months off with the new baby.
Just outside the delivery room there were at least three dozen Holders along with Willow and Callie’s grandparents. No family was perfect. Ford was just glad they were there. It made Callie happy, and that was all he ever wanted.
Callie had labored throughout the night. Ford had been right by her side for every contraction, just like always. As he turned to glance out the window just then, he noted a gorgeous sunrise cresting the buildings in Tulsa. He was certain his girls were the only things that would ever outshine the Oklahoma sky.